Synairgen shares shot up as much as 40 per cent after revealing a tie-up with AstraZeneca that could prove to be worth almost a quarter of a billion dollars for the AIM-listed drug developer.

AstraZeneca will now take forward Synairgen’s potentially breakthrough asthma treatment over the regulatory hurdles and, hopefully, onto the market.

The most successful AIM firms often get by with help from their friends.
Nothing captures the imagination of investors quite like the pairing of a household name with a lesser known expert - be it a paradigm-shifting researcher, a technical innovator or one of the plucky natural resource hunters.

Combining the nimble, niche expertise of a small cap with a cash rich big brother creates a certain symbiosis that investors find irresistible.

First there's often an immediate cash benefit, but, usually such partnerships also deliver vital commitments to facilitate the sort of step up in operations that simply wouldn't be possible for a solo small cap.

Given the relative scarcity of capital in recent years it is no wonder partnering has become such an integral feature of a small cap's strategy.
Synairgen chief executive Richard Marsden sees AstraZeneca as the perfect partner.

‘They are just dominant in the respiratory sector. They have a pipeline of very exciting respiratory products too,’ he said.
‘We spoke to every respiratory player. We would be daft not to. But it became obvious quite a while ago AZ were going to be the best partner for us.’

Synairgen wasn't the week's only biotech success story either.
Tissue Regenix, the regenerative medical devices company, was also in investor demand after launching its flagship DermaPure product in the US - pretty good going, given the US subsidiary was only set up about 18 months ago.

The shares shot up almost 30 per cent as the company also revealed it has signed an exclusive government upplier partnership in the US with TASSMA for the distribution of DermaPure.

Still talking tie-ups, Thursday threw up another significant partnership between a blue-chip and a small cap – with Wood Group committing to a 50 per cent stake in a new company.

Enegi, via its associate ABT Oil & Gas, will have an indirect 25 per cent in the company which hopes to transform the economics of ‘marginal’ offshore oil projects using giant unmanned buoys and storage facilities.

Given that Wood has been working on the venture for a number of years, with varying levels of involvement, and it has now decided to take the plunge – the news can be taken as a significant endorsement of both the technology and the marginal field strategy.

It is hoped that an expansion of the venture, by adding field development projects to the pipeline, may be expedited.

Winner: Under their recent tie-up, Proxama will provide the contactless payment 'solution' and PrePay Solutions will provide the customer base

Proxama, a payments firm which counts Mastercard and ARM among its partners, was another winner as it unveiled a new hook up with PrePay Solutions (PPS).

The AIM firm specialises in NFC – near field communication - technology which is what allows customers to pay for products without even opening their wallets. It will provide the contactless payment ‘solution’ and PPS will provide the customer base.

Offshore services group SeaEnergy also tied-up a new venture, in a ship management partnership with Singapore listed Otto Marine.
Whilst partnerships on one hand help fund success, they also spread risk and potentially mitigate disaster.

Oil driller Tower Resources, which lost 60 per cent of its value after a disappointing exploration result on Friday, for example had to foot just under a third of the near $100million bill for the ‘dry’ Welwitschia well – because of a deal that brought in Repsol to run the venture back in July 2012.

This kind of retrospective, conceptual saving grace is, of course, scant consolation in the immediate wake of the result.

Though, chief executive Graeme Thomson is already looking forward to fresh exploration projects in recently acquired acreage – namely drilling onshore Kenya later this year, which believe it or not is another joint effort (alongside the FTSE 250’s Premier Oil).

As one well disappointed, another delighted.
Newly listed, New Zealand focussed Mosman Oil & Gas doubled in value on Friday with the discovery of oil in the perhaps aptly named Cross Roads well, at the Petroleum Creek project.

Having defined one discovery drilling now continues to test other, deeper targets and more oil ‘shows’ have been observed.

Mosman executive chair John Barr said Cross Roads results ‘appear to be a ‘proof of concept’ for a catalogue of 22 prospects.

Elsewhere, the broader small cap market struggled to hold off the sellers – as Iraq related geopolitical fears meant investors were looking to exit riskier positions.
Standing at 3,410 this morning the FTSE AIM 100 benchmark was down 3 per cent for the past week.